Douluo Continent: Gourmet Prisoner

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Shi Yu has turned three years old, and Tang Ya will soon be twelve. In six months, she will be going to Shrek Academy to register.

In the past year and a half, Tang Ya has been blessed with incredible luck—she has an endless supply of exquisite food to nourish her body, and an inexhaustible supply of life energy from the Star Dou Great Forest to devour. Her soul power has soared like a rocket, quickly reaching level 29, and she has even condensed her second soul ring.

Her second soul skill is called "Parasitism," which can absorb the enemy's soul power and devour life force. It is completely controllable and will only be triggered if she actively activates it.

With this "energy-stealing" technique, Tang Ya is thriving in the Forest of Dogs. She is currently in seclusion, striving to reach level 30 and preparing to break through to the Soul Master realm.

In contrast, Shi Yu never deliberately cultivated his soul power. His daily routine consisted of "fighting and eating"—fighting with various soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest to hone his combat skills. If he won, he would cook his opponent as food, and if he lost, he would run away (since he had powerful figures like the Crimson King secretly backing him up).

Even so, his soul power steadily increased at an average rate of one level per month, rising from level 21 when he saved Zhang Lexuan to level 25 now. This kind of "lying down and leveling up" really made Tang Ya, who was in seclusion and cultivating hard, envious and jealous.

At this moment, Shi Yu was like a restless street urchin, wandering around the Lake of Life, humming a little tune: "On this ordinary day, I'm wearing ordinary shoes, walking very ordinary by the Lake of Life..."

Suddenly, a lush orchard came into view.

Shi Yu raised an eyebrow: "Huh? When did an orchard appear in the core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest?"

Who cares, as long as there's fruit to eat! Following the rich aroma of fruit, Shi Yu strode into the woods.

"I smelled the fragrance of fruit and came to the middle of the forest, where I saw many ponies. I looked for a lucky pair..." Shi Yu hummed a tune unconsciously, then realized, "Wait a minute, why are these horses planting fruit trees?"

He looked closely and saw that the horses were brightly colored, with red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple all present, and their appearance was quite unique.

Shi Yu's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked down at the horses' hindquarters—luckily, there were no strange markings. It seemed that these horses had "passed the political vetting" and were eligible to take the civil service exam.

Just then, a small orange-yellow pony noticed him and slowly turned its head.

This isn't a pony, it's a unicorn!

She has soft, orange-yellow fur, golden mane like flowing sunlight, clear and bright emerald green eyes, and a spiral-shaped golden horn on her forehead, which is now shimmering with an earthy yellow light, as heavy and steady as the earth.

"Huh? Is it going to cast a spell?" Shi Yu's heart tightened, and he followed the unicorn's gaze to look behind him—there was nothing behind him, no other creatures.

The unicorn's gaze remained fixed on him.

"So they're going to attack me?" Shi Yu looked bewildered. "Aren't unicorns supposed to be friendly soul beasts? Why are they attacking right away?"

Before the words were even finished, the light on the unicorn's horn reached its peak. Shi Yu dared not be careless and quickly dodged to the side.

However, the anticipated magical attack did not arrive. The unicorn simply stomped its foot, the light on its horn instantly vanished, and the ground beneath Shi Yu's feet suddenly rose, a thick pillar of earth propelling him into the sky!

"Damn it! What do you mean by glowing horns and magic feet? You can't take a joke, can you?" Shi Yu wailed in mid-air. He had no ability to stay airborne and could only watch helplessly as he fell.

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, Shi Yu fell solidly to the ground, a sharp pain shooting through his buttocks.

"Ouch—my ass..." He grimaced as he got up, intending to confront the unicorn, but froze on the spot, his heart sinking.

The commotion had startled all the ponies in the woods, and they all turned around, their eyes fixed on Shi Yu.

And each of the "ponies" has a unique horn on its forehead!

A full twenty unicorns!

The unicorns glared at the intruder, and the atmosphere instantly became tense.

"Um... I was just passing by, I won't disturb you planting fruit trees, I'm leaving now!" Shi Yu chuckled awkwardly and turned to slip away.

But just then, all the unicorns' horns lit up with various colors: earthy yellow, emerald green, azure blue, fiery red... clearly blocking his way.

"You can't leave." The orange-yellow unicorn that attacked Shi Yu first spoke, its voice clear and melodious, like the ringing of a wind chime.

"We've set up a special barrier around this Four Seasons Forest, so even a ferocious beast like Di Tian can't sense its presence here," she said slowly.

"And you, my friend, being able to break through the barrier and come here means that you have the fortune to feed on frightening beasts."

"Alright, everyone, stop scaring him," the orange-yellow unicorn said, turning to its companions.

Upon hearing this, the unicorns all extinguished the light on their horns and stood quietly in place, but Shi Yu was still curious about where they had released the magic from.

Seeing this, Shi Yu breathed a sigh of relief and dusted himself off: "You should have said so earlier, you almost scared me to death."

The orange-yellow unicorn walked up to him and said gently, "Come with me, child. Since your destiny has guided you here, you must have sensed the call of that thing."

"That thing? What's that delicious?" Shi Yu's eyes lit up, instantly forgetting her earlier displeasure.

"You didn't know?" The unicorn was somewhat surprised, then chuckled, "The thing called 'luck' is really unreasonable."

The man and the unicorn walked side by side, heading deeper into the forest.

"We are not native to the Star Dou Great Forest, but come from various different places," the unicorn slowly explained.

"Three years ago, we all felt the call of this forest, and so we gathered here without prior arrangement."

"How many unicorns are there in total?" Shi Yu asked curiously.

"Including the cubs, there are fifty in total," the unicorn replied. "After arriving here, we started planting fruit trees to protect the ecosystem of this forest."

She gestured for Shi Yu to look at the roadside, and Shi Yu looked in the direction she pointed. His eyes widened immediately. He saw a puppy with a banana tail, a pig that was round like a pomelo, and a hedgehog covered with durian thorns... all kinds of strange soul beasts that he had never heard of before.

"They are the native inhabitants of this place," the unicorn explained. "The Four Seasons Forest is composed of four areas: the Spring Forest, the Summer Forest, the Autumn Forest, and the Winter Forest. We are currently in the Summer Forest."

"Where are we going?"

"We don't go to any of the forests." The unicorn smiled mysteriously. "Actually, there is a fifth area in the Four Seasons Forest, surrounded by four other forests in the center. It used to have only fruit trees and no animals, but now it is our unicorn settlement."

"Only fruit trees?" Shi Yu's attention was instantly drawn to them. "Aren't the unique fruits there especially delicious?"

The orange-yellow unicorn stopped and shook its head: "Actually, we've never eaten the fruit that's unique to that place."

"Why?" Shi Yu asked, puzzled.

"At the heart of the Forest of Life Rhythm grows a unique apple tree that bears a fruit called the 'Apple of Life Rhythm.'" The unicorn's gaze turned serious.

"But we can't pick it. Just getting close to the apple tree makes our hearts race and we feel a deadly threat. As for the other fruit trees, they're no different from those in the other four forests."

"Special ingredients!" Shi Yu blurted out.

"Special ingredients for special dishes?" the unicorn asked in confusion.

"It's a top-quality ingredient that requires specific methods to harvest or cook!" Shi Yu explained excitedly. "It seems this 'Life Rhythm Apple' is absolutely a delicacy!"

The man and the unicorn continued on their way and soon left the Summer Forest, arriving at a wide-open space.

At the other end of the open space was a lush, vibrant forest, its verdant leaves shimmering in the sunlight, seemingly brimming with boundless vitality.

As they drew closer, a clear and familiar voice reached their ears—

"Thump...thump...thump..."

The sound was like the heartbeat of a giant, steady and powerful, carrying a magnificent life force.

Shi Yu and the unicorn both stopped, feeling the warm aura enveloping their bodies, as if they had returned to their mother's embrace, feeling incredibly comfortable and at ease.

"This is the heartbeat of the life-pulsing apple." The unicorn's eyes were filled with awe.

Shi Yu gazed at the mysterious forest, licked his lips, and exclaimed with anticipation, "Let's go! Let's taste just how delicious those apples are!"